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Jason Vogel: Yes on 302 for democracy!

Posted:
10/25/2016 07:35:35 PM MDT

Vote yes on ballot question 302 to set City Council term limits as a first step in improving Boulder’s democracy. Future steps could include on-year council elections, ranked choice voting, and acknowledging partisan elections in Boulder (the kind of different visions for our community that help many people decide whether to vote for a Democrat or a Republican in state and national elections). But to take any of those future steps, we need to prove that we can successfully implement the small-scale reform proposed in 302.

Five City Council members were elected in 2015, which was, as always, an off-year election (meaning no major state or national political offices were in play). During such boring political times only 29,552 ballots were returned out of 62,895 sent out, or just shy of 47 percent voter participation. Compare that to the on-year elections in 2014, where 46,513 ballots were returned out of a total of 64,388, or 72 percent voter participation.

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So fewer people vote in off-year elections, and this smaller slice of the public is making existential decisions about our city. In 2015, for example, Jan Burton received the last council seat with 8,986 votes. Cindy Carlisle was the next in line at 8,861 votes. One hundred twenty-five people in Boulder decided whether Jan or Cindy would represent us, and these two candidates held very different existential views about Boulder’s future. Cindy supported 300/301 (shut down all development) and Jan opposed 300/301. If this election had been held in 2014, up to 15,000 additional Boulder voters could have weighed in.

Regardless of our positions on issues like development, we should all agree that maximizing participation in our local democracy is a good thing. Voting yes on 302 is the first of several steps needed to increase voter participation and enrich our local democracy.

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